Our European Competitions.

Yes I know U.K. is in Europe but this page will include all about any competitions not in the U.K.

15th October 2017.

The end of our 2017 season was a great contest in Hungary. Contest number 76 for us and country number 14. Also 25 miles into our return journey we ‘clocked up’ 200,000 bbq miles!
This was a very well organised, first year contest, under the very capable watchful eyes of the ‘Italian job’ Haymo and Luca from the KCBS. Other established contests could learn a lot from Mariusz Adorjanyi and his team. Thanks to them for everything and special thanks to Peter and Ivan for organising our transport to and from the contest. Thanks also once again to Peter Craig Flynn for bringing much needed supplies.
Our results were 1st Chicken, 1st Ribs, 9th brisket and overall RGC. Congratulations to KGB of Hungary for GC and to everyone that heard their names called.
Thanks again to our sponsors Dingley dell direct meats BBQ guru Fab Mcbrikett Vuur en rook and a very special thanks to Ian McKend and Ty McKend of Pro Q Macs bbq. We definitely wouldn’t have done this one without you.
See you all next season!

Fantastic weekend at Sint Niklaas Belgium. For company, again we had our son Stefan and his good lady Alex. They decided they would have another go at the SCA steak cook off and also cook the ancillary category of ‘after bbq party cocktail’. The steak round brought a big disappointment for them, finishing last but thanks to the great generosity of Tom and Dorinne they soon had a smile back. At awards they weren’t too confident but when First place and a perfect 180 was called for them we couldn’t have been more excited to say the least!
Our results weren’t as spectacular 5th Chicken, 11th ribs, 10th pork and 4th brisket, for overall 4th place. Congratulations to Smoking Fins on the GC and bunch of swines for RGC and everyone who heard their names called. Thanks to Katrina and Dave and family for a very well run contest. Thanks as always to our sponsors Pro q macs BBQ Dingley dell direct meats BBQ guru Fab Mcbrikett Vuur en rook

At the farm meat contest in Dongen Netherlands we placed 4th overall with a 1st place ribs, 5th pork, 11th brisket and a ‘table 315 don’t like chicken – we prefer tofu’ 😜. Congratulations to our great friends Southern Dutch for another GC and to IQ for RGC and to everyone who heard their name called. Wishing Peter Bootsma a speedy recovery after his terrible burns.
This result was our fifth counting contest for kcbs and means that we are top of the ‘5 contests or less’ category! (At least until the weekend). Thanks again to our sponsors Pro q macs BBQ Dingley dell direct meats BBQ guru Fab Mcbrikett Vuur en rook

Full results here https://www.kcbs.us/event/6807/farm-meat

2nd September 2017.

The first Suyerdersee contest is in the books. Great first year contest, good location, well organised and friendly feel about it. We placed 5th chicken, 7th ribs, 12th pork, and 1st brisket for overall 3rd place. Congratulations to our great friends Clint Meyer and Eva of bohemian bbq for GC, IQ for RGC and everyone who heard their name called. Big thanks to Marjan Visser for the company, cheese and emergency kapsalon! Big thanks also to Jan van de Pijpekamp and his lovely lady for accepting our awards for us. Thanks to our sponsors as always Pro q macs BBQ Dingley dell direct meats BBQ guru Fab Mcbrikett Vuur en rook. Full results here https://www.kcbs.us/event/6907/1st-international-suydersee-bbq-contest

26th August 2017.

Another great weekend at Regahfest with Bbq family and this time real family aswell. Our son Stef and his good lady Alex joined us and cooked the SCA steak and chicken wings. Thanks to the Bbq family for making them very welcome and look out for ‘Sweet rack’ in future contests! Our results chicken 10th, ribs 11th, pork 6th, brisket 4th for 3rd overall. Congratulations to bbqplus for gc and IQ for rgc and to everyone who heard their name called. Thanks to our sponsors Pro q macs BBQ
Dingley dell direct meats BBQ guru Fab Mcbrikett Vuur en rook. Special thanks to our great friends Tom and Dorinne of Southern Dutch Bbq for their great hospitality and generosity. Thanks to everyone who is supporting our Pigswill product range.

Full results here https://www.kcbs.us/event/6945/regahfest-2017

19th August 2017. Euregio Germany.

Yet another great contest, organised by Roman Schellartz and his family. Very well run and friendly event. We placed 5th chicken, 8th ribs, 6th pork and 5th brisket, which was good enough for RGC overall. Congratulations to Bbq Weisel for GC and to everyone who heard their name called. Thanks to our sponsors Pro q macs BBQ
Dingley dell direct meats
BBQ guru
Fab
Mcbrikett
Vuur en rook.

Another great weekend this weekend at the 2nd Black Forest smoke and wine contest. Michael and Steffi did a fantastic job AGAIN and everyone was so well cared for. Amazing atmosphere and every whim catered for. We had great fun with all. Our results were 7th Chicken 4th ribs 11th pork and 12th brisket, which was enough for overall RGC. Scott Fraser from Angus &Oink did a desert for the Anything But category and got a 7th place. Congratulations Scott on your first BBQ call. Congratulations to Schluchtengriller on their GC and to Southern Dutch on 3rd place overall. Also congratulations to everyone who heard their names called. Thank you to our sponsors, PRO Q, Mac’s BBQ, BBQ Guru, Mc Brikett, Vuur en Rook. We appreciate all your support. Thank you to Michael and Steffi for their gracious hospitality in their home. They got me a birthday cake as well. Massive thanks also to Peter and Lilli and Tom and Dorine for getting meat and equipment for us allowing us to take part.

We had a lot of fun at the cook off in hoofddorp. Last European contest of the season and we had 9th chicken, 5th ribs, 3rd pork and 15th brisket for overall RGC. Congratulations to IQ on GC and to everyone who heard their name called. Thanks to our sponsors Pro q macs BBQ
Dingley dell direct meats
BBQ guru
Fab
Mcbrikett
Vuur en rook
Pigswill

Ruhrpott has been kind to us in the last 2 years but not this year. We felt we turned in some of our best entries ever, unfortunately the majority of the judges definitely didn’t agree. Congratulations to bunch of swines for GC and our great friends Dragon BBQ for RGC and to everyone that heard their name. Thanks to our sponsors
Pro q macs BBQ
Dingley dell direct meats
BBQ guru
Fab
Mcbrikett
Vuur en rook

We had a great weekend again in Sint Niklaas with great friends again and lovely weather. Some issues with our cook but still managed 3rd overall with 4th chicken 15th ribs 2nd pork and 2nd brisket. Congratulations to IQ for GC and bunch of swines for RGC and to everyone who got a call. Thanks to Stef Gouwy and his lovely wife for their great hospitality on Friday night. Thanks to Hans de Leenheer for his great company and ‘salesmanship’ 😜 Great times as always with white squirrel and southern Dutch and nice to see the Plymouth pirates get a call in a tough field on the European circuit (looking forward to the tattoo 😜). Thanks as always to our sponsors Pro q macs BBQ
Dingley dell direct meats
BBQ guru
Fab
Mcbrikett
Vuur en rook

Another well organized 1st year contest. Great company and beautiful weather. We were fortunate to place 3rd in Chicken, 1st in Ribs, 12th in pork and 8th in brisket for overall GC! Congratulations to Smoking bad BBQ team for RGC and White Squirrel for 3rd on their wedding anniversary (plus Thankyou so much for all of your help this weekend) and to everyone who heard their name called. Thanks also to Oncle Jed for the loan of a smoker and Haymo for the hotbox. Thanks to our sponsors Pro q macs BBQ
Dingley dell direct meats
BBQ guru
Fab
Mcbrikett
Vuur en rook

Country number 13 for us to compete in was Norway. Another great location and a lot of fun with good friends. We managed a 6th place brisket and 8th overall. Congratulations to Viking BBQ on their GC , BBQ longhorn ranchhands on their RGC , Byron from Buttrub for winning the Nordic alliance and everyone that heard their name.
Thanks to our sponsors once again Pro q macs BBQ Dingley dell direct meats BBQ guru Fab Mcbrikett Vuur en rook and Pigswill Full results here http://www.kcbs.us/event/6419/oslofjord-bbq-challenge

7th August 2016. Smoke in the North. Sweden.

We placed 2nd in ribs and 6th overall at Smoke in the North 3, in Gunnilse Sweden. Congratulations to Byron of Buttrub for GC and Free range BBQ for RGC and to everyone that got a call or walk. Thanks to Thomas and Jenny and their team for another great event. Thanks also to our sponsors Pro q macs BBQ
Dingley dell direct meats BBQ guru Fab Mcbrikett Vuur en rook and Pigswill. Full Results here http://www.kcbs.us/event/6313/smoke-in-the-north

14th August 2016. Olosfjord. Norway.

Country number 13 for us to compete in was Norway. Another great location and a lot of fun with good friends. We managed a 6th place brisket and 8th overall. Congratulations to Viking BBQ on their GC , BBQ longhorn ranchhands on their RGC , Byron from Buttrub for winning the Nordic alliance and everyone that heard their name.
Thanks to our sponsors once again Pro q macs BBQ Dingley dell direct meats BBQ guru Fab Mcbrikett Vuur en rook and Pigswill Full Results here http://www.kcbs.us/event/6419/oslofjord-bbq-challenge

25th July 2016. Black Forest. Germany.

Another fantastic BBQ week is over. It started with a great class and went straight into the first Black Forest smoke and wine festival. Faultless organisation from two lovely people Michael Koepf, Stefanie Wordehoff and their team (and thanks again for allowing us to be guests in your home). Great location and beautiful weather. We had a 4th place ribs and 1st place perfect 180 score in brisket, after 6 years of chasing one and 60 contests!!!! for overall 3rd place. Congratulations to the lovely couple, Grillkunst of Austria on their first GC and joining the 700 club! and to our very dear friends Southern Dutch on their RGC and also to everyone who heard their names. Thanks to the great help from Daniele Govoni. Thanks as always to our sponsors. Pro q macs BBQ
Dingley dell direct meats
BBQ guru
Fab
Mcbrikett
Vuur en rook

One of the best contests of the year is over and teams and judges were, yet again treated like royalty by our gracious hosts Anna and Andrea Maschio and their team. All 18 teams that qualified should call themselves winners, just for being there. We placed 3rd in ribs, 3rd in pork, 5th in brisket and 4th overall. Congratulations to IQ for GC (and a big thanks for the adjustments 😊) and to bunch of swines for RGC and to everyone that got a call. Thanks again to our great sponsors Pro q macs BBQ
Dingley dell direct meats BBQ guru Fab Mcbrikett Vuur en rook. Full results here. http://kcbs.us/event/6264/prime-uve-invitational-barbecue-championship

26th June 2016. Camargue, France.

Another great weekend of BBQ competition is in the books and history made again. Congratulations to Jed Thompson and his team for organising the first KCBS contest in France. We placed 6th chicken, 1st Ribs, 2nd Pork and 1st Brisket for overall GC. Congratulations to our great friend Byron Chism of Buttrub on RGC and to everyone who heard their name called. Thanks to Jed and Marco Agostini for the help with equipment and to our sponsors Pro Q macsbbq, Dingley dell, direct meats, Mcbrikett, bbqguru, fab and Vuur en rook. Full results here. http://www.kcbs.us/event/6082/cookin-camargue

5th June 2016. Kerteminde, Denmark.

Great contest in Denmark. 1st ever Kcbs. BBQ by the sea, Kerteminde. Very well organised by Jimi Kristensen and his team. Beautiful location with wonderful hot, sunny weather all weekend. As always, with Haymo and Luca repping, the contest went very smoothly. Great company from the local and traveling teams. To make a great weekend even better, we were lucky enough to take GC, with 1st chicken, 6th ribs, 1st pork and 3rd brisket. Congratulations to our great friends Flaming Pig BBQ for the RGC and BBQ brothers of Denmark for their third place and qualification for Brew ‘n’ Q invitational and a Jack ‘bung’. Also congratulations to everyone that heard their name called. Massive thanks to Michael Toftelund for his help with equipment and meats and my shiny new license plate 😊. Thanks to Peter and Marijan of Letz Q for taking care of us with parsley and coffees 😊. Special thanks to Henrik Somerland for the loan of his smokers and to steak-out.dk for a fantastic brisket. Thanks also to our great sponsors Pro q macs BBQ Dingley dell direct meats BBQ guru Fab and Mcbrikett. Full results http://www.kcbs.us/event/6566/bbq-by-the-sea

21st May 2016. Prague, Czech Republic.

Another very well organised contest by Clint and Eva, with great reps Harry and Linda. We placed 5th chicken, 5th ribs, 8th pork and 10th brisket for 4th overall. Massive congratulations to BBQ 4all defenders for GC and newlyweds Southern Dutch for RGC and to everyone who heard the names called. Thanks as always to our sponsors Mcbrikett, pro q macsbbq, Dingley dell, direct meats, BBQ guru, fab. Links to all on this page. Full results here http://www.kcbs.us/event/6269/bohemian-bbq

1st May 2016. Brugg, Switzerland.

Feeling very blessed to have such a fantastic BBQ family! 😊 After one of the family had kindly offered to drive our meats, sauces, injections and other bits ‘n’ pieces from the U.K. to Switzerland and suffering the agony of his vehicle breaking down before leaving the U.K. we were faced with a decision – give up and not compete or reach out to see who could help. Within one hour we had replaced almost everything we needed and a quick visit to the store completed the list. Without the kind help of Dennis Amende of Gecko BBQ, Marco Agostini of Barktenders, BBQ longhorn ranchhands and Haymo Gutweinger, along with various things from several other teams and our sponsor Kasper of Mcbrikett plus so many more offers of help, not only did we manage to compete but were lucky enough to place RGC! with 2nd Chicken, 5th Pork and 1st Brisket. Massive congratulations to our great friends and lovely couple BBQ longhorn ranchhands on their first GC. So glad we were there to share it with you. Also congratulations to my (Scott’s) German twin and my German girlfriend 😜 Daniel and Connie of Swat BBQ for 3rd place with 4 calls. Major congratulations to Gecko BBQ for their 180 in pork and being the highest placed Swiss team which should mean Jack qualification 😀. That’s good BBQ Karma. Also congratulations to everyone that heard their name in another rainy Swiss weekend. Thanks to the reps Haymo and Luca. Every contest they have repped has been successfully and efficiently handled. Thanks to our sponsors Kasper of Mcbrikett (who once again went above and beyond the call), pro q macsbbq, Dingley dell direct meats, BBQ guru, fab.

Full results here http://www.kcbs.us/event/6064/smoke-by-the-river

24th April 2016. Salzburg Austria.

The 10th country for us to compete in. Weather conditions made it difficult for all teams with high winds and heavy snow. We placed 6th in chicken, 3rd in ribs, 2nd in pork and 10th in brisket for overall 4th place. Congratulations to Baldicue for GC and to BBQ longhorn ranchhands for RGC and to everyone who heard their name called and thanks again to our great sponsors, links to all on the right of this page. Full results here http://kcbs.us/event/6461/barbecue-bulls-championship-2016

19th March 2016. Meat the East. Netherlands.

Another very well organised, first year contest ran by Huddie Stokes and his team. We placed 3rd chicken, 1st ribs, 6th pork and 9th brisket for overall RGC. Congratulations to IQ for GC and to everyone who heard their name called and thanks again to our great sponsors, links to all on the right of this page. Full results here.Meat the East

16th January 2016. WEST Italy.

First competition of 2016 saw us back at WEST in Italy. Great competition once again, made extra special because it was our 50th and the organisers presented us with beautiful personalised aprons, plus the KCBS staff, along with a great favour from the IOT, presented us with our KCBS TOY awards for 20th overall and 14th in brisket. Our results were 4th in Chicken, 5th in mystery box and 18th overall.Congratulations to everyone who heard their name called and thanks again to our great sponsors, links to all on the right of this page. Full results here. http://www.kcbs.us/event/5963/west-winter-extreme-south-tyrol-2016

10th October 2015. BBQ Society Cookoff Hoofddorp, Netherlands.

Well organised contest again by Frits and Dennis. We thought we would actually make awards this time but, alas it wasn’t to be. We placed 4th in Chicken, 9th in Ribs and 5th in Brisket for 6th place overall. Congratulations to everyone who heard their name called and thanks again to our great sponsors, links to all on the right of this page. Full results here. http://www.kcbs.us/event/5578/3rd-annual-bbq-society-cook-off

27th September 2015. 2nd Ruhrpott. Herten, Germany.

A new location for this contest, which was a lot better than the last one. Good organisation which even included a firework display. Once again we had to leave before awards, but we did manage an 8th in Pork and a 1st in Brisket, for an overall RGC. Full results here http://www.kcbs.us/event/5473/2nd-ruhrpott-bbq-2015

Thanks as always to our fantastic sponsors. Links to all can be found on the right side of this page.

Another beautiful setting for a bbq competition. In the centre of Sint Niklaas, with the town hall as a back drop. We arrived nice and early for this competition. Giving us time to enjoy some fantastic Belgian Ice cream followed by chocolates. The best ice cream we have ever eaten! Once again, a great contest, well organised with great hospitality for the teams.

We felt we had a good cook and the judges agreed with all of our entries placing in the top 3 at awards. We had a 3rd chicken, 2nd ribs, 3rd pork and 3rd brisket, which was good enough for 3rd overall. Congratulations to IQ for GC and BBQ Longhorn Ranchhands for RGC and to everyone who heard their names called. Full results here. http://www.kcbs.us/event/5795/het-bbq-kampioenschap-van-het-waasland Thanks again to our sponsors whose links can all be found on the right side of this page.

13th September 2015. Bohemian BBQ. Prague, Czech Republic.

This competition marked the 9th country that we would compete in and once again the weather was very kind to us. First port of call was drinks with some of the European bbq family on arrival (at 1 a.m.) at the hotel that most of the teams were staying at called the Admiral Botel (a boat turned into a hotel). The organisation of this contest by Clint and Eva was second to none and the crowds turned out in force for them. The location was also a beautiful setting on the banks of the river. The weekend came and went all too soon and at awards we were fortunate to receive 1st in chicken, 1st in ribs and overall RGC. It was an absolute honour to share the stage with our great friend and massive ambassador for European BBQ, Byron Chism of Buttrub.com who earned GC. Full results here. http://www.kcbs.us/event/5729/bohemian-bluegrass-bbq

Massive thanks again to our sponsors, who’s links can all be found on the right side of this page.

29th August 2015. Regahfest. Den Haag, Netherlands.

Beautiful weather greeted us when we crossed the channel for our latest visit. We were headed to Den Haag for the first ever Regahfest, hosted by our very good friends Daan Hamoen and his De Rokende Regahs team. After our usual ‘pitstop’ for Belgian Full English breakfast we arrived in the cultural Den Haag. The contest was set in an urban area which was new to us and we soon settle in and built up our home for the weekend. Once again, we were fortunate to have great weather and great company. Our neighbours included BBQ Dragon, Iron BBQ, Rub Bagby and Amy of Swamp Boys all the way from Florida and Tjoppie Doppie who kindly brought and perfectly cooked the best Moules we had ever eaten! 2 kilos of them! The end of the weekend came too soon, but that also brought with it awards time. We felt we hadn’t cooked our best pork so maybe today wouldn’t be our day. The judges didn’t agree. They thought our chicken wasn’t great but we had a 10th place ribs, 5th place pork and 1st place brisket for overall RGC! Full results here.http://www.kcbs.us/event/5310/regahfest Thanks as always to our sponsors, whose links can all be found on the right side of this page.

Our drive home was surrounded by horrendous storms with thunder, lightening and hailstones, but thankfully we got back ok. Short video here. IMG_2040

We arrived at the contest later than planned thanks partly to horrendous traffic everywhere from home to the tunnel, then massive queues for the tunnel and also a four hour delay for the tunnel. Meaning a 4 hour trip to Calais took 12 hours! Even the queue for Burger King was approx 70 yards long!

We also had with us some fantastic pork from our new sponsor Dingley Dell who also supply top Chefs such as Heston Blumenthal, Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver. It really is the best pork available!

We had great neighbours for our competition De Rokende Regahs, Buttrub and De Filous who kept all of our glasses full with great Belgian beers (even one which was a cross between beer and champagne).

We were also kindly provided with a great brisket from Thomas of Flaming pig and our now customary dinner with our friends at Southern Dutch this time was a fantastic Mac n cheese, followed by wonderful home baked cinnamon rolls kindly brought to us by Dennis and Hetty from Seaside smokers. Add to this that letz Q took our Cambro for us from Sweden, John from BRBQ brought us sauce from his last trip to the U.S. and Roman had got us a new toy – a son of hibachi and you can see why it’s not difficult to love this BBQ family!

We had a wonderful weekend and the icing on the cake was our results. We took 1st in chicken, 4th in ribs, 3rd in pork and 2nd in brisket for an overall GC. Congratulations to BBQ Wiesel for RGC and to everyone who heard their name called. Full results here http://kcbs.us/event/5755/euregio-bbq-festival Massive thanks to our very dear friend Roman who, although he doesn’t always realise it, organises a very great contest, in which his kind and friendly personality is portrayed perfectly. Big thanks to his team including his lovely parents. Thanks to our reps Marianne and Mayco and Linda and Harry, who always work efficiently. Massive thanks to all of our sponsors whose links can all be found on the right of this page.

2nd August 2015. Smoke in the North 2 Gunnilse, Sweden.

This competition is the furthest North on the European circuit (and the 8th country for us to compete in) and we were keen to attend as we had missed out last year. So with it being so far for us to travel we needed to take a flight again and rely heavily on our European bbq family. For a time lapse video of our landing in Gothenburg see here. IMG_1835 Gothenburg airport is one of the nicest we have ever been to. Small, clean, efficient and friendly. We were through in little time and the competition organisers had even arranged for us to be collected from the airport by these two very kind people. Lena from Flaming Pig and Edward from Team Anoniem.

After a few drinks at the competition site it was time to check in at our hotel. The hotel was great and the view was even better. For company (and a taxi service) at the hotel we had Wayne and Maria Lohman from the KCBS International outreach team. Thanks for the chats, company and drinks.

The weather was great for the competition, which was held at Thomas and Jenny’s Flaming Pig BBQ joint, set in a picturesque golf course.

The competition was a complete success, and massive credit to Thomas and Jenny, who also managed to run their restaurant all weekend too! We had a very good cook and managed a 1st Chicken, 1st Ribs, 3rd Pork and 1st Brisket for overall GC with a score of 704 for Europe’s first ever entry to the 700 club. Full results here.http://www.kcbs.us/event/5719/smoke-in-the-north Thanks to Thomas and Jenny for a great competition and loaning us equipment. Congratulations to Letz Q with guest team member Stephen Mehrer and thanks for taking our equipment. Thanks to Thom for taking our trophies with him. Congratulations to everyone who heard their name called. Thanks as ever to our great sponsors whose links are on the right side of this page. Thanks to our very dear friend Roman, for being great company for our stay and bringing our charcoal from McBrikett and also for being our tour guide on Monday for our very relaxing wonderful day in Gothenburg.

4th July 2015. Prime Uve European Invitational. Gaiarine Italy.

Our 3rd contest in as many weeks saw us travelling to Italy again for the first ever European Invitational competition. We flew into Venice airport this time and what a difference between that and Rome. It took us less time to clear passport control, collect baggage and pick up the rental car than it did to clear passport control alone in Rome! Venice 4 Rome 0. After a short 45 minute drive we arrived to a blistering 38 degrees C at the Prime Uve Distillery. The location of Gaiarine was picturesque and peaceful and our Italian hosts, Marco, Andrea, Anna and the massive team, were gracious as usual. All of the teams were treated so well at this contest, with treats such as a pizza expert cooking non stop delicious pizzas (or Pizze, as I learned), tent, tables, sinks, electric, fridge and meats provided (besides the free entry) and the most important thing was FREE ALCOHOL!The main aim for all of the teams was to make it through the weekend, with the temperatures hitting 42 degrees C on the Sunday and only dropping to 25 degrees C at night with high humidity, to add to that we were both suffering with bad colds.

Saturday was American Independence Day so we got John Clement (U.S. born living in Germany) of BRBQ to give us a song.Click this to see it IMG_1773

With our neighbours, Seaside Smokers and us sleeping out the back of the tents the area looked a bit like a refugee camp Sunday brought another beautiful morning to be followed by higher temperatures than Saturday. Thankfully Seaside Smokers had a great idea to keep cool. They bought a child’s paddling pool from a local shop.

Awards were earlier this time so we got to attend, for the first time in three contests. We came in 4th overall, with 13th in Chicken, 2nd in Ribs, 4th in Pork and 4th in Brisket. What made the whole weekend even more special was seeing our very good friend John Clement of BRBQ claim GC whilst cooking this competition solo! Fantastic achievement. Massive Congratulations to BBQ4all International for RGC and also to everyone who heard their names called. Full results here http://www.kcbs.us/event/5834/prime-uve-invitational-barbecue-championship

Thanks as always to our great sponsors who’s links can all be found on the right side of this page.

27th June 2015. Delft Netherlands.

The second of 3 back to back contests saw us driving, once again to Netherlands. This time to another new event on the KCBS European calendar. Delft in the Netherlands. En route to the competition we received an S.O.S. call from fellow English team Bunch of Swines, whose car had broken down. Unfortunately they were approx an hour and a half behind us and even though we offered to unload our kit and go back to collect them so that they could compete, at that time their number one priority was to get the car back to England to get it fixed. Never good for this to happen but pleased to say they got out to the next competition.

A good collection of teams were present including one of our sponsors Bob Trudnak of BBQ Guru, who travelled across from the U.S. to compete. He also brought us a few goodies including these magnetic stands. If you haven’t tried one yet, you should, they make life very easy. The weather, again, was great and Jaap Brouwer and his good lady organised a great contest with fantastic facilities for the teams including the best breakfast you could ever imagine on the Sunday morning. Once again because of late awards we were driving back to the tunnel when the text came through with results. We placed 9th overall, with 10th in Chicken, 14th in Ribs, 10th in Pork and 7th in Brisket. Congratulations to Seaside Smokers for their first GC (so sorry we weren’t there to witness it) and BBQ Guru on RGC and to everyone else who heard their name called. Full results here http://www.kcbs.us/event/5655/delft-beer-bbq-fest Thanks once again to our great sponsors whose links are all on the right of this page.

20th June 2015. Perugia Italy.

No driving this time and no tunnel. We opted to fly to Italy and cook out of a suitcase. We flew into Rome airport. This is a place I would strongly recommend is avoided. After landing, it took approx 4 hours to clear passport control, collect baggage and pick up our rental car. Eventually though, we arrived at the site for the competition. As we have found so far, the Italians are very well organised and extremely hospitable. Everything we had asked to loan was there ready waiting for us, which made life a little easier. The site was fantastic and a lot of money and effort had been spent to get it looking like that. Along with great people and scenery, Italy is well known for great food and we topped our first day off with Gelato.

Competition day came and the weather was perfect again. We had a great time in Italy once again and made so many new friends, with everyone being so friendly, including these guys with possibly one of the best team names ever! . Unfortunately we weren’t able to stay to awards as they were a little late and we had an early flight back out of Rome, so we were given results via message whilst sitting at the airport (which is horrible). We placed 4th overall, 6th in Chicken, 2nd in Pork, and 1st in Brisket. I think we found the place where some of our rib table judges live whilst travelling back to the airport hahahaha – only joking we love you all ! Congratulations to BBQ4all International for GC and BBQ4all defenders for RGC and to everyone who heard their name called. Full results here.http://www.kcbs.us/event/5712/italian-barbecue-championship-2015 Massive thanks to our sponsors whose links can all be found on the right of this page.

7th June 2015. Deurne Netherlands.

Over to the Netherlands again, this time for a brand new KCBS competition in Deurne Netherlands. We managed to get an earlier tunnel which meant we arrived in time for a beautiful sunset, after a very hot day and also meant we had extra ‘beer time’ in Calais.

Next morning after our usual breakfast pitstop we headed to Deurne and arrived around lunchtime and got set up. Our neighbours for the weekend were De Rokende Regahs, who had a brand new Pro Q , courtesy of macsbbq, to season and cook the competition on.

Whilst at the competition we celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary and De Rokende Regahs, very kindly cooked us a fantastic Indonesian meal, complete with desserts, beer, candlelight (even though the only candle they could find was a memorial one!) and even played via iPad, the first song we danced to, on our wedding night. Amazing! and thanks so much again Daan and Ed.(worth noting how well dressed the waiter was!)

We enjoyed a great weekend with our BBQ family again. So many other high lights, such as John from BRBQ teaching Miss Piggy the ‘real’ version of the Wobble and all of the great food from Andy of BRBQ, aswell as our wonderful gifts from Den, Het, Eef, Roman, Mayco and Marianne. Thanks to everyone.

To ‘top off’ a fantastic weekend we managed to have a successful cook and placed 4th in Chicken, 3rd in Ribs, 1st in Pork and 1st in Brisket to give us overall GC. Congratulations to BBQ team Extreme for RGC and to everyone who heard their name called. Also a big thanks to our sponsors, whose links can all be found on the right side of this page. Full KCBS results here. http://www.kcbs.us/event/5571/vuur-en-vlees-fire-and-meat

24th May 2015. Hoofdorp Netherlands.

Back across the tunnel again and our third time at the Tony Stone competition, which was the first and now, the biggest competition, with 68 teams competing. We decided to try to cook a pork butt on our new baby Pro Q Ranger, to see how long such a small smoker would burn for and how it would cook. and it managed it just perfectly along with McBrikett charcoal it ran for over 16 hours without a guru at 250 degrees F and we even cooked breakfast on it, which was kindly supplied by Jed Thompson. Enjoyed spending time with you buddy.

We were accompanied for the weekend by our sponsor and friend Ian McKend of Pro Q Macs BBQ and we decided to put him to work by helping to pull 15 whole hogs for the whole hog competition on the Saturday and also, among many other things, cooking our duck entry. . Awards came and with the exception of chicken, in which we received a third place call, the judges didn’t like our product this time. Full results here.http://www.kcbs.us/event/5305/tony-stone-low-slow-bbq-competition

Congratulations to Bunch of swines for GC and IQ for RGC and to everyone else who heard their name called. Thanks again to our sponsors whose links can all be found on the right side of this page.

After the competition we were invited to stay for a few days with our very good friend Eef van Koutrik, and that evening we were invited to dinner with part of the Seaside smokers team Het and Dennis. We would like to thank all of you for your fantastic hospitality which gave us chance for a much needed rest. Also got to make a new friend over the weekend, the lovely little boy that is Pablo Escobar. See you soon little boy!

10th May 2015. Hasselt Belgium.

For this trip we had very little time to prepare after helping Byron Chism of Buttrub to cook for the U.S. Ambasador in London (see our catering page for more details), also Byron was joining us for the trip to compete in Belgium, which meant this was his and our van’s first channel tunnel trip.We were packed full in the van and things were a little rushed leaving due to something in the van moving and preventing the side door opening or closing completely so when we stopped en route at the supermarket for ice we unloaded everything from the rear and sorted the issue. However when we got to the hotel in Calais we had the same issue and we needed our bags from the van for our overnight stay, which lead to a half unload of the van at 11 p.m. in the hotel car park and me ‘commando crawling’ over the other stuff left in the van with Byron in the front trying to open his case and between us taking out the things he needed for the night. This produced one of the funniest moments ever, ‘I need my briefs!’ said Byron. So fumbling around I found them deep in a corner of the suitcase and said ‘are these ok?’ We all couldn’t stop laughing. Maybe you had to be there but that was funny! I don’t think I’ve ever chosen another mans briefs for him before! So instead of checking in to the hotel with a suitcase or overnight bag, he was checking in with a few clothes rolled up as if he was a small child going to the swimming pool! A few beers and bed was the remainder of a stressful day in which Byron said he had never heard anyone cuss so much and nicknamed me popeye!

Wim and Dimitri run an excellent contest, for many reasons, one of those being that they give every team and judges a meal of Fries and a Belgian stew on the Saturday night, including FREE BEER!!!!!!

Thanks again to our sponsors whose websites can all be found on the right side of this page.

3rd May 2015.

Brugg Switzerland.

Our 7th Country to compete in. We needed to fly to this competition as the drive would have been a little too much, so we relied heavily on our great bbq family, once again to get us the equipment we would need to do so. An added ‘headache for this competition was the fact that, with Switzerland not being a part of the E.U. we were not allowed to fly in with any meat, so another member of the bbq family agreed to drive it across for us and a special agreement was made with the organiser in order to get it into Switzerland. After a good nights rest in Zurich we collected a hire car/bed for the night and arrived at the competition and eventually got set up. After our prep was done the teams were invited for traditional Swiss Fondue. Bill Gage put in a guest appearance on cheese stirring duty. Swiss beer must be very strong as he thought he was cooking brisket and waiting for the correct tenderness! The contest site was very close to the banks of a river and heavy rain fell all weekend, so much so that the local police came to warn us that the river could burst it’s banks on Sunday! Besides that issue our cook went well and we though that Brisket was our best entry. Once again the judges didn’t entirely agree because we received a 1st Chicken, 1st Ribs, 1st Pork and 6th Brisket for overall GC, with a score of 691, which we think is the highest so far in Europe! and also took us to 5 KCBS GC’s in 5 different countries inside a year! Congratulations to BBQ4ALL Defenders for RGC and everyone who heard their name called. Full results here http://www.kcbs.us/event/5256/smoke-by-the-riverMassive thanks again to our fantastic sponsors who’s web pages can all be found on the right of this page.

17th January 2015.

Riva Di Tures. Italy.

The first competition of the calendar year for us was a trip to Italy, the 6th country we would compete in, in the beautiful area of Riva Di Tures, in the W.E.S.T. winter extreme BBQ competition. We needed to fly to this competition because the drive there would’ve taken too long. With expected temperatures as low as minus 20C we needed to prepare a little differently than for most competitions. First thing was a ski clothing shopping trip!

Just like our U.S. trips, this would also mean relying heavily on sponsors and friends to help out with equipment. No vehicles were allowed on the competition site as we were ‘balanced’ on at least 2 feet of snow already, so every team cooked out of a gazebo tent, of which ours was loaned from the contest organiser. We flew from Birmingham to Munich, where we collected a hire car and then met up with our charcoal sponsor Kasper from McBrikett, who not only had our charcoal supply but had also coordinated with our U.K. sponsor Macsbbq Pro Q to get two brand new Pro Q Excel’s for us to use. Both of these guys went ‘above and beyond the call of duty’ and we can’t thank them enough.

The next morning we made the 4 hour drive from Munich, through Austria and on to Italy. The weather got progressively worse as we travelled. We arrived at the competition site to be greeted by several feet of snow! We quickly set up, had meat inspection and prepped our meats and then had chance to enjoy the beautiful scenery, along with several adult beverages!

Our hotel was the beautiful Berger hotel, nestled amongst the mountains with a fantastic view of the contest site. After checking in we enjoyed some wonderful local pasta with our friends from Smokey Goodness NL. before heading back to the competition site to start cooking and drinking with De Rokende Jaegermeister Regahs!

We headed back to the warmth of the hotel to get a few hours sleep (with a little slip in the snow en route).

The next morning was the coldest, with temperatures reaching a forecast minus 8C, which, we learnt the hard way, presented all of the teams with a whole new set of problems to overcome, such as frozen olive oil!

We weren’t 100% happy with our cook as we made some schoolboy errors, however we seemed to manage to put those errors right during turn in and once again we were thankful that the judges liked our products. We finished 7th in chicken, 4th in Ribs, 5th in Pork and 2nd in Brisket for overall Grand Champion! Full KCBS results here. http://www.kcbs.us/event/5324/1st-west—winter-extreme-south-tyrol

Congratulations to BBQ 4all Defenders for the RGC and to every team who heard their name called. Also massive congratulations to Harry Havinga, who was presented with the KCBS Carolyn Wells award for his dedication and service to BBQ. Well deserved!

Thanks again to our fantastic sponsors (links to all on the right side of this page) but especially to Kasper from McBrikett who went out of his way to meet us in Munich and to supply all of our charcoal needs and to Ian McKend from Macs BBQ Pro Q for supplying us with two brand new Pro Q excel smokers, both products performed brilliantly in such adverse conditions. A special thanks to our great friends from De Rokende Regahs, who took everything we asked for to enable us to compete, we could not have even entered this competition without their help. Thanks also to Haymo and his fantastic team for the hard work in organising such a fun contest in such beautiful surroundings.

19th October 2014.

Just a week between competitions this time and we were headed back to Netherlands to compete in the 2nd Annual BBQ Society cook off in Hoofddorp. This competition holds great sentimental value to us and it would have lots of our great friends taking part. It was a very well organised but relaxed and friendly weekend with more partying than normal, as it also marked the last competition of, what has been a fantastic year for European BBQ, and us personally.

As always De Rokende Regahs cook site was ‘party central’ and after our win in Germany last week we made sure everyone had plenty of drinks.

There were many hangovers Sunday morning, along with many compromising Facebook pictures and many ‘never agains’.

We also received a surprise visit from the organisers of the Ruhrpott competition and they presented us with the extra trophy from that competition, which we get to keep for a year and is engraved with our name at the top.

The competition seemed like it flew by in a blur and it was soon awards time. We were fortunate enough to get a call in every catagory again. We were 4th in Chicken, 10th in Ribs, 6th in Pork and 4th in Brisket for overall Grand Champions! Full results here. http://www.kcbs.us/event/5079/bbq-society-cook-off

Big congratulations to De Filous for RGC and Smokey Bandits for claiming the Dutch Championship, also to everyone who heard their name called. Thanks as always to all of our sponsors listed on the right side of the page.

Following the competition we had the chance for a few days R ‘n’ R in The Hague with De Rokende Regahs. Daan was a great host and tour guide and showed us lots of his beautiful city.

It is really sad to see the season come to an end but also very exciting to see how many KCBS sanctioned BBQ competitions there are planned for europe next year. It is something that we are proud to be a part of.

On a personal note we have had our most succesful season so far with three KCBS GC’s (in three different countries) and two (three if Lowlands is counted seperately) RGC’s, a third place, two fourth’s (Alaska and Florida) and an eigth place. Most importantly we have extended and strengthened our fantastic BBQ family. Roll on 2015!

12th October 2014.

Shortly after our last trip, we were heading back over to Germany to compete again in the second KCBS competition held in that country. This was to be the biggest competition in Europe so far and it is fantastic and exciting to be a part of the BBQ and KCBS growth in Europe. Organised by Palm BBQ in Germany and held in Gelsenkerchen this competition had a massive prize fund with 10,000 Euros (approx 12650 dollars) going to the winner! It attracted 58 teams from 11 countries including 3 very good U.S. based teams. According to the KCBS it was the biggest international competition so far.

After the long drive we arrived early Saturday morning and set up in the corner of a massive field of competition teams, food stands and vendors in the middle of Gelsenkirchen horse racing track.We joined up with our amazing European bbq family and friends and were treated to breakfast cooked by Low and Slow Meister fron Netherlands, on their amazing self built trailer pit, which is not only the biggest we’ve seen in Europe but also made with outstanding build quality.

After the cooks meeting it was time to concentrate on the cooking and as morning came and went we felt that despite a few minor hiccups we turned in some nice entries. Fortunately for us the judges agreed and we came 4th in Chicken, 3rd in Ribs, 4th in Pork, 2nd in Brisket and overall Grand Champion. Full KCBS results here http://www.kcbs.us/event/4651/ruhrpott-bbq

Also this year has seen the creation of the European BBQ Challenge Cup, by the European KCBS reps Mayco and Marianne Van Galen. This cup is similar to the U.S. team of the year, whereby out of all the contests throughout the year each teams best three score in each catagory and overall count towards the trophy. Going in to this competition we were lying in third place by 28 points, with two of our better scores ineligible to count as they didn’t meet the criteria, so we thought the best we could hope for was to hang on to third place. However we amassed enough points difference in the one competition to also claim top spot and become Eurpoean Cup Champions!!!!! Congratulations to Bunch of Swines on RGC and one of our great sponsors Wicked Q on third place and to everyone who heard their name called. Massive thanks as always to our fantastic sponsors who are all listed on the right of this page.

Quote of the weekend…… Byron Chism ‘ These dumbasses are gonna spend all that money on coming to the U.S for more competitions!’ Love it! See you in April.

To say the money is unimportant would be ridiculous, but what is more important is the congratulations and appreciation from your bbq friends and family along with the beautiful shiny trophies. So much so that we left Gelsenkirchen without the prize money as we forgot to collect it!!!!!

Just a week after the last competition we were back in Europe again for the first ever KCBS contest in Germany. This would be the 5th country we had competed in. So back on the tunnel after long delays on the drive down and then a long drive from Calais to Germany, passing through France, Belgium and Netherlands.

As usual, on arrival, we were greeted by many great friends from all over Europe and the U.S. We had great neighbours for the weekend. BBQ Weisel from Germany kept us in great food for the weekend, John from BR BBQ brought us our favourite Andouille sausages and BBQ Guru NL entertained us in other ways!

No pre BBQ party is complete without De Rokende Regahs and they had just made a trip to the store and liked the look of this Jagermeister shot stand that was on offer. The only thing is it came free…….with TEN BOTTLES of the stuff! Needless to say, that plus the Regahs equals bad things, but bad things you probably won’t remember! No party will ever be complete again without more renditions of ‘Chocolate’ this time executed with grace by our great friend Frits de Jonge. Again, we have video evidence and are open to the highest bid to either show it or not haha!

Along with the company, the weather was great for the weekend. At one point under our tent it reached 42 degrees C!

The weekend came and went all too soon and it was time for awards. We both felt we had a reasonable cook and the judges seemed to agree. We received 1st in Chicken, 10th in Ribs, 3rd in Pork, 2nd in Brisket and Overall RGC. Thanks again to Roman for organising a very well run contest and making us feel welcome. Thanks again to our sponsors. Listed on the right side of this page.

12th September 2014.

We travelled to Belgium for the second time this year, this time to Diksmuide for a combined KCBS and European style competition. There was 8 catagories in total, 4 which were the normal KCBS, chicken, ribs, pork and brisket and the 4 European style which were fish, bacon, kangaroo and dessert. There would be a GC and RGC for KCBS and the same for the European style, with the main emphasis from the organisers being placed on those two sections combined to provide overall GC, RGC, and third place finishers for the competition.

We arrived at around 11p.m. friday night, after a long journey, and were greeted by our good friends from the KCBS International Outreach team, who were repping the contest and many of our European friends including Pure BBQ and De Rokende Regahs. Any meeting with De Rokende Regahs always results in the need to take extra pain killers for the hangover you are certain to receive the next day, and the party they were having didn’t let us down. A great night and a visit to their tent in the evening is like a trip to Vegas……whatever happens there, stays there…..but I do have video evidence haha! We were supposed to be trying to get an early night but finally fell into bed at around 4 a.m. and less than an hour later we were woken by the alarm so that we could start cooking 3 of the 8 catagories, along with vending to the public. I don’t know how we made it through the day but we did. The 3 entries Fish, Chicken and Ribs all went in on time and were in the hands of the judges.

The weather played nicely for the entire weekend, which brought many members of the public out, to what was a very well run event. Congratulations to Geert and his team on a great job done. We opted to keep away from the party tent on Saturday as we were still feeling worse for wear on Saturday night so we got the big meats on and had few bears but then got some much needed sleep.

Feeling fresher on the Sunday, we had the remaining 5 catagories to turn in plus vending again, so another 5 a.m. start. Again we got them all in, on time, and to the best of our ability. Awards were around 5.p.m. after enjoying a few songs from John from BRBBQ.

At the awards Miss Piggy’s were fortunate enough to pick up 4th in Chicken, 5th in Ribs, 2nd in Pork, 2nd in Brisket, 9th in Fish, 7th in Bacon, 8th in Kangaroo, 18th in Dessert, RGC in the KCBS section, 9th in the European section and RGC overall. Which brought some beautiful trophies our way. We have always wanted to win a mini smoker trophy like they have a lot of in the U.S. but have never won one, but the award for RGC overall was an awesome minature offset smoker which was hand made taking 45 hours and is fully functional! Probably one of the best looking trophies we have ever won! Results here http://www.kcbs.us/event/4982/lowlands-bbq-championship Overall results here

Congratulations to Pure BBQ for their overall GC and to BBQplus for their overall 3rd place. Also congratulations to Wettels on Fire for their European GC and Smaakmakers for the RGC and to Bunch of Swines for their KCBS GC. Many thanks as always to our fantastic sponsors BBQ Guru, Fab the Ingredient store, Head Country, Wicked Que and BBQ Dry Rubs and Sauces UK.

10th June 2014.

The Latest of our adventures took us back to Netherlands and to the Tony Stone Low and Slow, full KCBS sanctioned competition run by Harry Havinga and his team. Harry does a great job of organising, what was the first ever sanctioned KCBS event in Europe, and is upto the time of writing, the biggest BBQ competition in Europe, with 43 teams attending from Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, U.S.A and U.K.

We arrived at 3 a.m. after a 12 hour journey, so after a few hours sleep and cheesecake for breakfast, it was down to the competition site to check in and set up. This is a beautiful location with a man made beach on a picturesque lake. Once prep was complete it was time for a drink or two with bbq family and friends from all over the world. The Saturday evening entertainment was provided by De Rokends Regahs, who kept the drinks flowing and music playing. We were even treated to dancing from a certain friend from the U.S. (who shall remain nameless) after being ran down and reversed over by the Dutch and Belgian ‘beer trucks’. No drinking session is complete without a cornhole championship with Fireball shots for the losers. No party is complete without several compromising photos of Stefan from De Rokende Regahs, whilst he slept.

Our cook went well, apart from the strangest thing with Brisket. The left side of the brisket cooked quicker than the right! Never had that before and can’t understand it. Turn in’s came and went and then results. Last year’s Tony Stone results were our worst ever (except for Brisket) so we were keen to improve on our showing. We got a 3rd in sauce, 2nd in Ribs, 4th in Pork and 3rd Overall. See full results here. http://www.kcbs.us/events.php?id=4631

Massive congratulations to our great friends Smokey Bandits who claimed a well deserved GC and to Smokey Goodness who were RGC. Congratulations to all teams who took part and heard their names. Yet again BBQ was the true winner! Great to spend time with all of our European and U.S. BBQ family again and can’t wait to see you next time.

Miss Piggy’s were back on the European travels again 11 May 2014, with a visit to the first ever KCBS competition in Belgium. So everything loaded and back down to the the tunnel under the sea once more.The other side of the tunnel we had a three hour drive from Calais to Hasselt, where we had booked into a hotel close to the competition site. After a few hours sleep and breakfast it was off to the site to set up for the contest.

The European BBQ scene is growing rapidly, along with the amount of teams participating. This year will see as many as 11 KCBS competitions around Europe in places such as Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Italy and U.K. To mark the growth the KCBS Europe team, headed up by our good friends Marianne and Mayco Van Galen, have come up with a great plan of having a European Team of the year and this competition would be the first from which points would count. There were 30 teams booked in and with one ‘no-show’ it set the field at a respectable 29 entries from Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, U.S.A. and U.K. Some of the European teams are very serious about their Q, a quick glance around the rigs they were using told us that.

Once set-up was complete, meat inspection and the following prep went smoothly, so we had time for a nice stylish meal out in Hasselt……….but we decided a nice Kebab was in order instead. I know how to show a girl a good time! We even found time to take Byron Chism for his first ever Kebab on Saturday night after his visit from the ‘Beer Truck’!

The weather was probably the worst we had experienced for a competition with heavy showers and strong winds, which lifted our Gazebo (with water filled weights on each leg) up and over our tables and plonked it 10 feet away! Which is bad enough at anytime let alone during Chicken turn-in! The wind tried again at Rib turn in and Pork turn in but fortunately we had some fantastic friends and BBQ family close by who hung on to each leg and and even ran our boxes for us. Massive thanks to Maria, Wayne, Debbie and Bill and our Neighbours BBQ Guru NL and the team from Austria. There were several points where we could have easily thrown in the towel but we stayed focus and got the job done as best we could.

Results time came and we were lucky enough to receive 2 calls and 2 walks. We got a 1st in Sauce, 7th in Livar Pork, 5th in Pork, 7th in Brisket, giving us 8th overall. A big improvement on our last visit to Europe. Congratulations to IQ for the GC and Serial Grillaz for RGC and to everyone else who heard their name. Full results here http://www.kcbs.us/events.php?id=4682 Massive thanks to the organisers Wim and Dimitri for doing a great job.

Our next European competition, took place in Nootdorp Netherlands on 18th/19th October 2013. This was a KCBS ‘licenced’ competition with a capacity of 16 teams booked in to attend. As it turned out the organisers had to turn several teams away! This event was superbly organised from months prior through to finish by great BBQ people again, Frits de Jonge, Dennis Noskos and Hetty. The competition was excellently ‘Rep’d’ too by our very good friends Marianne and Mayco Van Galen.

If you are familiar with our last trip to the Netherlands to the Tony Stone you will remember what a disaster it was logistically, so this time we decided to rely solely on two people (ourselves) to make sure everything went smoothly, and it did thankfully. We elected to drive across this time as we had a little more time to spare. We had a choice between the ferry and the channel tunnel. We went for the tunnel as it was quicker and neither of us are that good on boats and had no desire to be seeing our dinner again shortly after consuming it.

This was our first time tavelling by the tunnel and we would highly recommend it. If you aren’t that good at directions they make it quite clear for you!

So we sat for for half an hour in our own car, inside a train, inside a tunnel under the sea and we were there in Calais France! I still find it amazing!

We wanted to try to make it to Belgium to stay the night and because we got an earlier crossing than expected we arrived with plenty of time to find a hotel for the night. The first place we asked at wanted 250 euros a night so we quickly left and after visiting a few more that were fully booked we decided to drive on to Netherlands. We arrived there at around 4 a.m. and finally found a place to stay, even though the guy on the reception thought it was quite strange that we should be booking in then.The following morning, after a nice rest and a pit stop at the second prettiest McDonalds we’ve ever seen, it was off to the contest location.

We were greeted by many old friends that we had met on the ‘BBQ Trail’ and it was great to be amongst our BBQ family again. We were sited next door to our very good friends Harry Havinga and Co from BBQ Guru NL, who are fast becoming one of the best teams in Europe. We met up also with our very good friends De Rokende Regahs.Our right hand neighbours were Belgium team De Filous.Great Boots!

The competition went without any major hitches and our cook went well we felt, even though it was our first competition on our new ‘European travel light’ set-up of one UDS and one small wsm. We managed a 4th in Ribs, a 2nd in Pork (with a lovely trophy),a 4th in Brisket and a 4th overall. Our chicken (Kip – the only Dutch I know) let us down badly with 14th out of 15 entries, although with the new KCBS scoring sheets we could see that if we had been last at any of the other two tables we would have been in the top two. That is the luck of the tables sometimes though and we take the rough with the smooth. All in all it was a great competition that was very well attended too by the general public. Full results herehttp://www.bbqsociety.nl/en/resultaten/Some great looking trophies were up for grabs. There were many things about this competition that put a big smile on a faces including seeing some very good friends taking a walk.Here’s Dominique Bos picking up her award for 3rd in Chicken. Love it! Congratulations! Congratulations to IQ who took GC – really nice to meet you – great guys and obviously great cooks! also to Southern grill and bbq for their RGC.

So then it was back home via the car, on the train, in the tunnel, under the sea again!

Our first competition in Europe was the 3rd annual Tony Stone Low and Slow KCBS sanctioned competition held in Hoofdorp near Amsterdam in Netherlands.

It was a fantastically well run competition and a credit to both Harry and Linda Havinga and also the KCBS International Outreach team of Wayne and Maria Lohman, Bill and Debbie Gage and Jim and Becky Johnson. The location too was superb with a ‘feel’ similar to the International Village at the ‘Jack’.

We were late to the party as Miss Piggy couldn’t get out of work before Friday so we elected to fly in to Amsterdam and use equipment provided by Harry Havinga. So, up at 3 a.m. Saturday for a 7 a.m. flight out of Birmingham for the 284 mile flight to Amsterdam Schipol.

We arrived at Schipol airport to the realisation that because we had been so busy neither of us had even thought about changing up pounds into euros! Oops! Check pockets and purses double oops, we had £50 between us! No problem we thought – we can use our card to buy foreign currency…….yes you can if you have notified the bank prior to your trip so that they don’t freeze your card and treat it as fraud! So we changed up our £50 to around the same in euros and went outside to get a taxi. The taxi driver, unfortunately, was confused and thought we had asked to purchase part of the vehicle as he wanted to charge us 30 euros for a 10km journey! As that would mean we would have very little money left we went for the cheaper option of bus 300. Bus driver 300 was a star, and told us exactly where to get off the bus almost opposite the entrance to the competition location………..except for the fact you have to walk around 20 mins from there with luggage to get there!

So we arrived at the site to find our host Harry hastily setting up a pitch for us with a couple of pro q smokers (one of which was brand new and we needed to assemble) and a table and a shelter borrowed from his lovely neighbours (who eventually gave us a ride back to the airport). We had to hastily fire up some coals because we now had less than an hour for the first (optional) catagories of potato salad, beans, burger and steak. Believe it or not we still managed to produce an entry for all four! Well we thought it was 4 catagories but the potato salad and beans were judged together and the steak and burger were judged together. I think we came around 13th in the potato salad and bean combo and we were chuffed that we got a ‘call’ for 8th in steak and burger (although I think the steak was better than the burger). The field contained some fantastic chef’s not just cooks and the quality of food turned in looked awesome!

We had arranged for our competition meat to be taken over by a couple of other U.K. teams, for which we were grateful, however it was a bit of a juggling act to get it to them and them to get it back to us. We got it to them the Tuesday prior and it was frozen then. I thought that from then until Saturday would give it long enough to thaw in a Catermax insulated food carrier. Now those things are fantastic and in my opinion miles better than any other insulated food box. So much so that when we opened it Saturday to start our prep everything was still frozen solid! If we took it ourselves we may have been able to thaw it by removing it from there on the Friday, but ‘adapt and overcome’ sprang into operation, and we hastily borrowed a pork butt courtesy of Harry Havinga and had to quickly buy 2 small, but very good quality briskets from Thomas and Jenny at Flaming Pig BBQ of Sweden. Our competition meat was then placed into the van of our very good friends European All Stars to try to thaw it whilst they had the heater running proving bread! (yes all of this did actually happen!). Steve Westerby, Johnny Larsen and the team are typical of true bbq people and they ran around for us all weekend. Thankyou gentlemen!We went for the gamble with chicken and ribs and hoped they would thaw in time to be cooked the following morning. These were the ribs after prep …..still part frozen! It is surprisingly easy to prep part frozen ribs. I recommend you try it …….just maybe not for a competition! Oh and I should add that these started out as whole bellies because my butcher couldn’t get ribs! So this is my amateur butchery.

Things calmed a bit after borrowed meat prep and we managed a walk around the site. Harry has chosen a fantastic location with a bar and restaurant on a lakefront with a beach.

Surprisingly, bar a few more minor miss haps and a night of adult beverages with old friends and new, the cook went ok and we managed somehow to put together some food for the judges. I still don’t know how because, on at least two occasions throughout the weekend we were more than ready to throw the towel in and catch the next flight home. We weren’t unhappy with any of the food we turned in and mostly it was to our usual high standard. Unfortunately the judges didn’t agree and we suffered badly at the tables in the first three catagories Chicken 26th, Ribs 13th, Pork 26th,with Chicken and Pork statistically our best two catagories we were stunned. We were 18th overall with our lowest score ever 623 but we did manage a 2nd in Brisket and a lovely wooden chopping board to add to the trophy room.Here is our chicken which bombed with scores of 878 877 878 777 878 877 . I honestly can say I don’t know where we went wrong for the first time ever. Congratulations to our new friends The Flaming Pig who came second in chicken with this fantastic box, and thanks again for that brisket! Congratulations to Lowland Smokers of Netherlands on their GC and to Bunch of Swines of England on RGC and also to everyone else who had a call.